Mac Tips And Tricks

Your Finder sidebar has an option called ‘All My Files’, this is method which is used to display a lot of files on your Mac. Its a good way of getting an overview of your Mac’s files. The problem with this is that if you have a secondary hard drive these files will not be searched. This is a problem for those people who have two hard drives, since the results of All My Files will only give results for your Macintosh HD drive. We can remedy this problem with a little work around.

Search Secondary Hard Drives

The ‘All My Files’ option within the sidebar is a spotlight saved search. Unfortunately, we can’t edit this default, however we can duplicate it.

Within the sidebar right click on the ‘All My Files’ option within Finders sidebar.

All My Files is a spotlight search like any other.

You will notice that the typical advance search option appears. Within this toolbar you can select ‘Search: This Mac’. This will search every file on your hard drive, including the secondary ones.

Set the option to search every disk.

We now have to save this option so we can use it in the future. Press the save button on the right of the toolbar and give it a name such as ‘All My Files All’, or words to that effect. When you press save the spotlight saved search will appear within the sidebar.

You can drag this option to below the ‘All My Files’ option.

To get the proper experience within the menu bar set View > as Icons, and View > Arrange By > Kind. This will set the cover flow type view you are used to.

You can now search every drive on your Mac in All My Files

Quick (Unreliable Method)

There is a quicker, albeit more unreliable method. When you go into search criteria for the original ‘All My Files’ you can change the search option. If you select ‘This Mac’ it will search your Mac as normal. Now this revert back to the normal method, when you click off it. However, the little toolbar will still stay visible, allowing for a quick change.

This method is quicker, however if you restart or cause Finder to reload, this toolbar with this option. It is quicker to do it this method if you only want to do it once or twice. The method listed is quicker if you want a more permanent change.

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About

I'm James, and I have been a Mac user for years. Over this time I have found loads of tips and tricks which have helped me get the most out of my Mac, so I decided to share them with you all. For more info see my about page.

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